Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn From: hutch@hfglobe.intel.com (Stephen Hutchison) Subject: [KQ] Sanctuary [gmoab 6.9] Ruby Slippers Message-ID: References: Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1992 21:25:31 GMT They'd been here, stranded, for what felt like a few hours, though Marcel's cronograph indicated that only about fifty milliseconds had really passed. The two rangers had begun searching, at 'Raelf's request, for survival rations in their packs. Kron just sat, not speaking, absorbed in his own personal world. Scorpion and Rook sat together, talking in very quiet tones to one another. Finally Scorpion came up to 'Raelf, where he was seated on a rock next to the wall of this nice save crevice. "Mage, Rook tells me you are very powerful - that you were able to hold off that monster in the Shun." 'Raelf grinned, flickering slightly. "No way, man. She was distracted. I'd need a hell of a lot more tools and backup to handle that bitch." "Oh. Then you can't help me." "Woah, wait a sec, dude. Maybe I can, maybe not. What's the hassle?" "It changed me. Look at me, I've become some kind of an obscene bug thing." "Really? I guess you have. Wow. Looks real neat, I like it. But I guess it would be kind of hard to live with all the time, eh? Wow. I'm so blown right now, I can't even see straight. So you want me to fix it for you, eh?" "Can you do that? I'll give you anything." "Don't really need anything. Hey! I just got an idea. You do me a favor, and I'll see if I can put you back. But I can't do it right now. I'd kill you for sure. Wait a few days." "Well, what is your favor?" Scorpion found himself crouching up and down, excitedly, and forced himself to hold still. "You figure out what you want to look like when you're human again. Looks like la mamou didn't want you to get loose - she wrecked your whole genecode. Betcha it was that bitch Choktaw's idea." Scorpion waited for the man to get to the point. "Oh. Yeah. I'm gonna put together a set of amulets. I want you to go through town and find anyone who has Joystix withdrawal, and get 'em to touch the amulet. It'll cure the sickness, get you in good with the Guard, and maybe make up for me getting carried away earlier." Scorpion scuttled back to where Rook was waiting. "So will he do it?" she asked. "Yeah, if I play doctor for all the stixheads in town." "What was that he was saying, figure out what you want to look like?" "Rook, I want to be ME again." "Oh, sure, with the rep you've got. Go back to being Scorpion the Waster, third most wanted assassin in Generica. You could at least get some hair." "I like being bald." "You sure you don't want to go for (whisper, mutter)." The bug-man couldn't blush, but he tried. Marcel waited for the insect-man to return to where he was talking with the woman who so outwardly resembled his sister. Then he went over to where 'Raelf was resting. "Mon frere. Will you be able to help us leave soon? We should try to return now, is there anything I can do to help you?" "No need, bro." Marcel looked up. A figure stepped out of the confessional booth - 'Raelf's twin. He came close, and looked down on the ghostly figure. The survivors suddenly felt a sharp sense of deja-vu. Kron looked over at Colins and Rhoans, then blinked hard, trying to resolve to single focus. [WARNING Possibility Sorter: background count exceeds safe levels ] [ Marcel - they're about to storm! ] /I know, rabbi, I feel it./ <> the transparent man asked. Wind whispered across the trees and the meadow was shaded by high clouds. The gregorian choir in the background was singing two separate masses. <> The solid twin picked up the ghostly one, and there was a peculiar sort of flash, a tumble of images and colors, incomprehensible and distant and impossible to look at. A sort of miniature storm erupted around them, a sort of miniature typhoon, tightly contained inside a sphere of invisible nothingness. [WARNING Possibility Sorter: DISPLAY OVERLAY ACTIVE ] (red and blue swirls of cloudy energy met, turning purple wherever they touched, behaving utterly unlike any reality storm Marcel had ever seen - there was no conflict, no attempt by one to weaken or diminish the other) <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> Two figures, cat-headed humanoids, long tails lashing, spun around a center point, gripped one another like wrestlers, spun, twisted, the brilliant darkness dissipated suddenly, and 'Raelf stood alone. [CONDITION GREEN background count is within safety limits ] ( the violet energy swirls built to a blazing white, focussed into a web surrounding 'Raelf, then sank in, except for a swirl that dissolved into an object in his hand, too bright to see clearly. ) [DISPLAY OVERLAY DEACTIVATING] The sense of deja-vu evaporated. 'Raelf took the ruby from his hand and placed it into a pouch in his bandolier. "Wild." He grinned at Marcel. "How can you be in two places at once?" [When you're not anywhere at all, boychik.] Somehow, the voice was audible - Marcel startled, suspicious of more magic. "Thank you, Rabbi," 'Raelf replied. "Folks, I saw some weirdness on the way here - the temple in Shunned Center is falling in. Y'all want, I can get us there in time to pick up anyone else coming out?" Kron stood, speaking mostly to himself, but to all of them. Finally, he looked up. "Let's get the hell out of here." The image of a pair of slippers, covered in red jewels, heels tapping to the chant "Home Sweet Home", filled their minds, and after a moment of disorientation they found themselves standing in the rubble in the Shunned Center. Coming towards them, Malieu was being helped to walk by Captain and the healer-woman Delmara, with Azzar and some kids following behind.